Letters (June 18)

Americans being tortured and held in Iran

It is time that Pastor Saeed Abedini, FBI Bob Levinson, and U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati be released by Iran. The administration must demand their release ... No one left behind.

The administration has until June 30 to get this done — Americans must be released by Iran immediately and stop the torture and unjustness. We leave no one behind ... Right?

Rory Rank, Las Cruces

Our students are being used as test guinea pigs

It seems that everywhere Hanna Skandera visits, there is a group of frustrated parents, teachers, and students waiting to welcome her with signs and chants. She is usually able to quickly sneak away before having to actually engage any of these true education stakeholders.

But why are these people harassing our secretary of education? It's because they know the score, and their numbers are growing very rapidly.

Across the state this year, over 10,000 parents opted their kids out of the PARCC exam, a product of Pearson Education and a very expensive burden on our children's classrooms (both financially and academically). Here in my hometown, Las Cruces, we saw about 1,000 of those opt outs. Students walked out statewide in protest of PARCC, because they know it puts their futures at risk.

Nationwide, states have been pulling out of the PARCC testing program fast enough to raise eyebrows, but New Mexico seems willing to sink with that ship. Hanna Skandera, who is on the governing board of PARCC, has a financial and professional interest in staying the course, even though it's been known for some time that the test is invalid, unreliable, and completely without merit in determining student achievement, teacher performance, or school evaluation.

And now, we see again our annual teacher exodus and/or budget cuts across the state. Veteran teachers, who have served our communities and children for years — some, decades — are leaving or being furloughed, to be replaced by a well-touted group of newly licensed, and highly moldable rookies.

New Mexico is being watched closely, as it becomes a battleground between corporate-funded education "reformers" and the true citizens who resist the destruction of our state's future. We have chosen to allow monied interests to use our children as guinea pigs in an experiment of failure, segregation, and economic casting.

States led by Democrats are doing better

As we move toward the 2016 election, we must look at the miserable economic results of many Republican-run states. From Wisconsin to Louisiana to New Jersey, GOP, with their eyes on the White House, have presided over unbalanced budgets, unfunded pension liabilities, credit downgrades and sluggish job growth. I originally came from Minnesota, got my PhD at the University of Wisconsin and still have a daughter living in Madison, Wis.—so I will compare recent economic trends in these two states. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and his Republican Legislature gave the rich $2.1 billion in tax cuts and made major cuts in school funding — resulting in the third worst job growth in the Midwest, $283 million budget deficit and median income growth $800 lower than the national average. Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota and his Democratic Legislature raised taxes on the rich by $2.1 billion and invested $900 million in schools -- resulting in the second largest job growth in the Midwest, $2 billion budget surplus, medium income $8,000 higher than national average and highest economic confidence in the country. Not that many years ago, these two states had similar economic growth statistics and education outcomes, but that has now changed. Another example is the poor record in Kansas where Governor Brownback also implemented the same top-down economic model by having steep tax and spending cuts that has crippled the State's economy and the public education system.

When are voters going to learn that trickledown economics doesn't work. There is no logical reason why people at the top are going to use that money to create jobs or education opportunities for the middle and lower classes. They will use that money to send their kids to private schools and invest it wherever they will get the most return.